Allan Browne - drums
Eugene Ball - trumpet
David Rex - alto sax
Nick Haywood - double bass
Geoff Hughes - guitar

He’s much more than just a great drummer: Allan Browne is a seminal figure in Australian jazz. He has perhaps its widest “comfort zone”: equally vibrant & creative in contexts that lesser musicians see as “opposing” forces: with banjo & tootling-clarinet in “trad”-land and in “avant, far-out-free” jazz territory. He’s a wonderful “modern mainstreamer” too, an intriguing poet & an occasional, deliciously quirky vocalist. His Drunken Boat project is one of his newer ventures.

Glynn Hickling: Trumpet
Caitlin French: Violin
Dushan Mitrovic: Clarinet
Mike Mueller: Tea Chest Bass
Maya Green: Violin
Taegan Hannah: Clarinet
Mikey O’Connor:Flute
Adam Ferguson: Guitar
David Hoxley: Tuba

Tzigas began in 2004 as a side project of world music band Umanee when Dushan and Adam decided to form a new band that would play wild Klezmer tunes along with high energy tunes from the Balkan region of Europe. Rehersals began but it was soon obvious that it would take time to master these forms.While Adam was travelling overseas Dushan met a group of Fitzroy buskers which included Mikey tea chest and mad Irish fiddler Andrais. A week later clarinet joined fiddle in a friday night residency at Fitzroy’s Babel. Over the next several weeks a band coalesced consisting of the above , Mikey flute, Glynn on trumpet and the Bulanyi bros. on guitars, playing a mixture of Django Reinhardt and Irish tunes with a sprinkle of Klezmer and Gypsy music.

Upon Adam’s return rehersals resumed, now utilising some of the Babel players and friends from the Bush Band. In May 2005 the Bulanyi bros. suddenly left the Friday night residency and a decision was made to fill the gap with the new Gypsy band which at this stage was months away from tunefullness. And thus was Tzigas born.

Large amounts of alcohol consumed by both band and patrons alike made the first few gigs bearable but Tzigas quickly built up a decent following with occasional guest performers such as Chris Tanner, Nena Simic, Don Stewart and others. Distinguished performers are still ecouraged to jam and regularly make appearances especially at residency gigs.

The name Tzigas is a corruption of the Slavic diminutive term Cige (Tsige) meaning Gypsies.

Gerard Masters (piano) Evan Manell (drums) Cameron Undy (bass)

“It’’s thinking music but sincere and heartfelt and possessed of a delicate, refined moodiness.” Shane Nichol

One of Sydney’s foremost young jazz pianists and composers, Gerard Masters studied and was very active in the New Zealand jazz scene, performing locally, touring and winning various awards, then doing a New Orleans stint before moving to Sydney in 1999.

After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2001 under legendary Mike Nock, Masters has led his own groups and played in the bands of a diverse range of musicians, including Vince Jones, Dale Barlow, Margaret Urlich, Rick Robertson, Nick McBride and Don Rader. Gerard has toured extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe performing at many of the top jazz festivals and venues.

As well as fronting his own trio, Gerard Masters is also a member of several leading Sydney ensembles, including E.O.N, The Good Guys and the Lily Dior Quartet.

“Masters has formed a trio of exciting soloists and exciting collaborators. He is an imaginative deconstructionist… the room was electrified by the sense that anything could happen. John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald.

Elana Stone teams up with two of the most distinctive voices in Australian creative music: Stephen Magnusson, guitar, and Julien Wilson, saxophones.
Elana describes the project:

“I first heard the Julien Wilson Trio at the Jazz Now! Festival in Sydney in 2004. It was one of those defining moments that made me remember why music is so important. At first I was struck by the delicious combination of the instruments: Jules’s tenor sax, Magussan’s nylon string guitar and Steven Grant’s accordian but it also occured to me that Mags, Julien and Steve were playing and communicating on an extremely high spiritual level

These incredible musicians are so accomplished technically that they were just singing through their instruments. I thought this was occurring as a result of many years of playing together knowing one another. I was later to discover that this was their first gig as a trio.

The guys obviously felt quite strongly about that first gig too because they have since formed a permanent group, travelled the world and made recordings using the same line up.

I was recently given the opportunity to make a recording for the ABC and I asked Stephen and Julien if they would be interested in playing on it. We spent two days in the studio and recorded an album of melancholic sea shanties. It will be called ‘She Went Mad and Drank Sea Water’, which will
be released later this year.”

Elana Stone

A roving all-star event. Exploring the nooks and crannies of Fed Square a collection of festival artists will combine to embark on an outdoor spontaneous, creative musical blitz.
Curated by composer/woodwind player Phil Bywater this outdoor session will aim to use the spatial, visual and kinetic energy in and around the Fed Square courtyard.

Craig Fermanis guitar
Sam Anning bass
Sam Bates drums

Craig Fermanis has been playing the guitar for 25 years, and professionally for 19. He has performed and recorded all around the world with a variety of different musicians and groups. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Craig mainly plays jazz and works as a freelance musician there.

Craig has studied with Doug de Vries in Australia, and with Jim Hall and John Abercrombie in New York. He has performed with James Morrison, Barney McAll, Jamie Oehlers, Paul Williamson’s Hammond Combo, Ian Chaplin, David Rex, Nichaud Fitzgibbon, Julien Wilson, Allan Browne, Mark Fitzgibbon, Michelle Nicolle, and many others.

Craig also leads his own trio that has recorded an album for ABC FM’s Jazztrak program. This album, “Machines”, was rated the third best Australian jazz release of 2002 by the website allaboutjazz.com .

Craig was a finalist in the 1989 James Morrison Jazz Scholarship, and made the top ten in the 2000 Wangaratta Jazz Guitar Competition. He is a member of Sam Keevers’ “Los Cabrones” and the Jamie Oehlers quintet.

For sound samples click
Sam Keevers was born in Mount Isa Queensland and began playing piano and cello at age nine. After finishing high school, Sam studied piano at the QLD Conservatorium of music and the Victorian College of the Arts (with Mickey Tucker). Since then he has performed and recorded with many Australian and International artists including: Scott Tinkler, Ian Chaplin, Mark Simmonds, Bernie McGann, Phil Slater, James Muller, Jamie Oehlers, Stephen Magnusson, Katie Noonan, Chris Potter, Bobby Previte’s Bitches Brew Project and Joe Bataan.

Sam was a finalist for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2005 and was nominated for an ARIA award for the album “Grace”, a duo recording with Jamie Oehlers.

Sam is currently studying Screen Composition at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and tutoring at Monash University.

Sam’s fringe festival solo performance will include improvisations, original compositions and explorations of music he’s discovered through his studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

Guitarist Nashua Lee has been involved in many ensembles such as the 12 tone Diamonds, The Miles Davis Tribute, Murphy’s Law and a tour with Barney McAll’s MODAS ensemble in 2005. This ensemble is his first group in Melbourne as a band leader playing all original tunes, and has evolved through several configurations (such as a collective bass-less trio). The group originally focused on exploring different shapes and sounds, merging folk, free jazz, fusion and rhythmic devices to create spontaneous interactive dialogues. Combining Julien Wilson (tenor sax) and Sam Bates (drums), they have expanded their palette to include jazz compositions as well as originals by Lee and Wilson.
For this performance they will be joined by the incredible Sam Anning on Bass.

“Nashua LeeÂ’s electric guitar could either hook into the music’s seductive sway or skip across it in resonant, iridescent waves.”
– Jessica Nicholas, The Age, Nov. 2005

Fran Swinn: guitar
Tamara Murphy: bass
Ben Hendry: drums
Fran Swinn is a guitarist living in Melbourne where she plays in some bands and teaches guitar. She is a member of the Picture Box Orchestra, the Jacqueline Gawler Quartet and her own trio.

She has a degree and a grad dip from the VCA in Melbourne and in 2005 was awarded funding from the Australia Council and the Ian Potter Cutural Trust to do some study at the Banff Centre in Canada and at the Berklee College of Music clinics in Italy where she received a scholarship.

Fran has also played on a number of film scores and in the occasional theatre show. She has appeared at a bunch of festivals including the Frankston International Guitar Festival, Melbourne Jazz festival, Apollo Bay music festival etc.

Presenting original material by Fran alongside some of their favourite hits from the 20th century. With an emphasis on freedom and group interplay, this group plays music that is grungy, wobbly at times but quite pretty.

Bumford is a Melbourne based trio, formed over 3 years ago consisting of Lawrence Folvig > Guitar, Lachlan McLean > Alto Saxophone and Ben Hendry > Drums. The group focuses on blending improvisation with well structured original compositions that they have been playing since the group formed. Bumford’s group dynamic along with their large palette of musical colours, textures and sound scapes entice the listener to relax and enjoy a rare musical journey full of discoveries.